Raven rode horseback to Reyk Roespeye, a journey burdened by the prolonged wait. When Mount Chappelle finally came into his view a week later, Raven felt a measure of relief to accompany steeled nerves. His anger for the Titan grew ten-fold over the course of his journey, a heart refilled to the brim with desires of killing him in the most satisfying ways. On behalf of his Tasks, vengeance had agreed to wait in the wings just once. It now demanded his full attention yet again.

There would be no more waiting.

Raven took the Durning Road, the far side passage up the mountain, where the Feather Giants nested, harboring their ill-gotten gains of ruby nectar behind black tar shells. The obsidian pods riddled the snowy crags, shining in dire warning to possible trespassers. To Raven’s surprise, Fanny was waiting for him as he arrived at the Hardgone Gate, a wide, lantern-laden opening between the fortress walls of Roespeye.

“Van asked me to meet you here,” she said as he approached. “I guess he was originally supposed to be the one to meet you here instead? He said Valentine was working on something big and needed his assistance. He didn’t elaborate.”

Raven nodded.

There was a moment of silence.

“Did you have people in Rapshuron?” she asked quietly.

“Yes.”

She nodded sadly. “I’m sorry, Raven. I didn’t, for which I am forever grateful, but many people I know did.”

“The Titan will suffer for his crimes.”

“You should know… some people are blaming you. Because of your little announcement before you left.”

“What about you?”

She sighed. “I don’t know. I’m… tired.” She furtively glanced left and right. “It’s like waiting on the edge of a war you knew had to come,” she said quietly. “But dreaded all the same. Rapshuron just proves any of us can be next. We continue on with our lives, accepting this terrible reality. Your actions haven’t altered that.”

“You speak wisdom.”

She smiled. “You look different. Really different.”

“I went through… an ordeal.”

“I think you’re taller than me now.”

He smirked, but didn’t reply.

“Come on. Let’s get out of the snow. You must be freezing.”

Raven considered declining and heading straight to the Tetrapolis, but he was admittedly exhausted from the journey and a glass of Cherry Fizzy sounded too good to pass up. And he was glad he did. Fanny took Raven back to her quarters, where she immediately set up a game of chess at her table and gave him an empty cup to serve himself any drink from her wonderous pandora-powered dispenser.

Raven settled in, letting the ice-cold drink bring him back to the present. They played a game in silence, which Raven won.

As he set up the board for a second game, Fanny rubbed her neck in irritation and took her necklace out, taking it off and placing it on the table. The long, golden rod on the chain gleamed.

“Darn thing is so heavy,” she said. “Have you had any luck in figuring out what this thing is?”

Raven picked it up, examining it closely. “I’ve given it a lot of thought, but many of my best resources have come up short. I think we just need to open it.”

“Fat chance,” she replied, moving her first piece. “Forir has the other one, and he won’t even talk about it with me. Thinks the things are going to explode if we bring them together. He’d laugh if I asked to use his piece to open them.”

Raven hummed. “I don’t get the feeling Master Forir laughs at anything.”

She chuckled. “You’re probably right.”

He turned the gold rod over in his hands, shaking it. “It feels empty.”

“You’re voicing my worst fear. That I’ve been lugging this dumb thing around and it’s got nothing inside.”

“Is that what Master Forir thinks?”

She sighed, purveying the board. “Dunno. From what I was told, these keys have been handed down to us for years. He may know as much as I do.”

Raven set the necklace down. “You seem… melancholy.”

She looked up at him. Slowly, she nodded. “You do, too. But I guess I understand why.”

“It’s more than Rapshuron. I left someone in Zaliance. I did not wish to leave.”

“Explains the new earrings.” When he gave her a quizzical look, she smiled. “Van told me about your ‘tasks’ when I asked where you’d gone.”

He frowned.

She laughed. “Don’t worry. I pulled it out of him. Call it concern. I owe you a great debt for saving Valentine’s life.” She placed her head in her hand. “I left people, too. I went home to drink from my pool and to see my family. I missed them. I still do. And my grandfather is ailing. I doubt I will see him alive again.”

“You come from Reyk Saphioc, right?”

She nodded. “My people don’t leave home very often. I’m sure you knew that. Not a common trait. It’s rare when I meet anyone else from Saphioc. No one from home ever visits.” She tapped the table lightly. “It gets lonely.”

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

As they continued to play, Raven observed his surroundings in a new light. Fanny’s makeshift home in her office contained all the trappings of a single person. He was probably her only visitor in a while. Being a young teacher in a city far from home must be a difficult experience. He had wondered why she seemed keen to maintain a friendship with him and Van, despite being her students. Now he understood.

“Darn, you win again,” she said after Raven declared checkmate.

He looked at her suspiciously, and she laughed. “I’m not trying to lose, I swear. Once you’ve finished your schooling, we should go to the casino together. I bet you could win a lot of money off those suckers.”

“Speaking of winning…” Raven pulled out the mysterious Class Seven pandora she leant to him. “I meant to ask you. This pandora. I’m still researching it. You said you won it. Do you remember who you won this from?”

“Oh yes. What a scene that was.”

“Scene?”

“Yeah, you saw how he acted when he lost his little ring.”

“Wait… you don’t mean…”

“That’s right. I won that pandora from Marcus Shrale.”

Raven was stunned. He looked at the pandora, thoughts whirling. But before he could dwell on it further, there was a tremendous slam. They both looked to her door as Valentine burst inside, flushed and huffing for air.

“Raven, I found you!” she exclaimed. “I did it!”

“Did what?”

“The books! In the Tetrapolis! I think I discovered Valius Shrale’s secret!”

.

Raven bid the shocked Fanny Fyre a quick adieu before he was racing behind Valentine as she led him back to Shrale’s secret room. Once there, she led him to the back of the sanctuary, where the old desk sat in the corner. A large amount of books sat on the desk in several columns. Van was waiting for them, also beaming at Valentine’s apparent discovery.

“So, you did get back,” he said, shaking Raven’s hand. “Did Master Fyre find you?”

Raven nodded.

“You look different.”

“I went through an ordeal,” Raven replied.

“So, I was told. Jack said the tower is impressive.”

“Speaking of Jack, I told him you would triple whatever you were going to pay him.”

Van’s jaw dropped. “What? Why?”

Valentine clapped her hands, silencing them. “You boys can talk business later.” She laid her hand on the stack of books upon the desk.

“You said you discovered the secret,” Raven replied, folding his arms. “What do you mean? Is there a hidden message within?”

“I’m not sure. You’ll have to be the one who makes that determination.” She took a book. “While you were gone, I read more of these stupid books than I could possibly count. I grew frustrated, so I started approaching them from a different perspective. Valius Shrale definitely had an alternative purpose for these books, right? We agreed on that. So, it was a matter of discovering what that could be. Perhaps there was a code built within the manuscript. But the more I thought about it, the more unlikely it seemed. You can make a code out of anything.”

Raven nodded. “Only one book is needed to make a cipher.”

“Right. So, why write thousands of books? If we have complete faith that these books were never meant to be read by anyone other than him, then they exist here only to serve as an obstacle. Once I came to that conclusion, I stopped reading.” She produced Moon’s Ark from her pocket and handed it to Raven. “I stopped using this weeks ago.”

“I assume you discovered the obstacle. What was the purpose?” Raven asked.

“I don’t know. But I know what was meant to be found.” She took the book and opened it. On the first page, Valius Shrale’s ink signature cantered over the paper.

“The anomaly,” Raven said. “The books with his signature instead of his insignia.”

“Not an anomaly,” she replied, waving her finger. “These are the books that matter. All the rest of these blasted journals are a ruse, meant to distract. On this desk is every book that exists in the Tetrapolis with his signature. Van and I spent the last two weeks scouring the shelves for them. And every single one has a seemingly errant line running through the first page.”

She picked up another book and showed them side by side.

"Okay, I’m following you. Definitely not a coincidence. But what is the significance?”

She beamed at him and slowly brought the two books together. As the pages touched, the two drawn lines through the pages connected and began to glow.

“Holy Wild!” Raven exclaimed.

“Hey, that’s my line!” Van said.

“It must be a seal!”

“That was my conclusion. But it’s not just any seal!”

She scurried over to the large circle on the ground beside the wall with the sky mural. Crouching, she lined up the book so that the open cover sat neatly on the metal rail forming Valius Shrale’s insignia. Raven’s eyebrows rose. The line ran perfectly in conjunction to the spot within his seal where she had placed it. She then placed the second book. It also fit, and the connected line commenced to glow once more.

“So, all these books line up to this giant form of his insignia on the ground?”

“Yes. But I did not complete it. I wanted you to be here in case… something terrible happened as a result.”

Raven looked her in the eyes. “Well done, Valentine. You did it. This is definitely the answer.”

Her smile was radiant. “Hey, I just realized. You’ve gotten taller. You’re the same height as me now. When did that happen?”

“I went through an ordeal. Let’s get this puzzle completed.”

They immediately set to work. Valentine had placed the books in order on the desk, so it was quickly reassembled. A perfect reiteration of the triangle insignia of Valius Shrale. Once she had the last book in hand, she went to place it. But Van stopped her.

“Let me do it,” he said.

She smiled and handed it to him. They stepped back while Van crouched just outside the circle. He gently placed the book in the last spot and then quickly backed away.

The glow of the connected lines grew exponentially, bleeding off the pages and surrounding the circle in a halo of light. Three runes appeared in each of the corners, Pro, Sur, and Ken. A loud buzz accompanied the growing illumination. The seal then rose by some unknown force, lifting off the pages to leave them all blank. The trio raised their hands to shield their eyes from the immense light. But Raven couldn’t help but stay his gaze.

The seal of light once again moved, but this time, something new was created as the lines twisted in shape.

“It’s taking on a new form!” Van shouted over the growing din. “What is that?”

Raven’s eyes went wide. “That’s…”

The refinished image rose to implant itself against the mural on the wall. The lines burned itself into the surface, and then the wall split down the middle and a doorway opened within. The light faded, and the once loud buzzing quieted to a sedated murmur. Raven, Van, and Valentine lowered their hands and slowly stepped forward. For several moments, they said nothing. All they could do was stare.

“Raven…” Valentine finally whispered in shock. “I don’t understand. What could this mean?”

The image burned into the wall above the newly materialized doorway featured a pair of wings accompanied by a twisted halo. Raven produced Rue’s pandora along with the mystery Class Seven pandora and held them up. The smoking image on the wall matched the pictures of both pandora perfectly.

But the mystery pandora was a mystery no more.

“So… it was you, all along,” Raven said.

“Who?” Van asked.

Raven looked up at the wall. “This is the true insignia of Valius Shrale. The triangle mark we knew before today was a misdirection, just like the Tetrapolis. And this…” He held up the Class Seven card. “This is his pandora.”

“Holy Wild! You can’t be serious! This whole time you had his actual soul?”

“Fanny just told me she had won this pandora from Marcus Shrale. This was his third treasure, the one missing from his pedestals. He had possessed his ancestor’s very soul. We just never knew.”

Van scratched his face. “But… I don’t get it. What does any of this have to do with your Rue the Day pandora? Why does she have the same pandora design as Valius Shrale?”

“Raven,” Valentine said solemnly. She pointed to Rue’s card. “Who is that?”

Raven looked upon the card with compassion, thumbing the edge of the powerful Class Eight.

“The people of our era call her the Sleeping Devil,” he replied. “But I know her by her real name. Sheeharu Rendan. And she has been my friend for a long time.”